Subj : Re: This Train Just Went Splat!
To   : alt.tv.er
From : npardue
Date : Sun Sep 25 2005 11:48:50

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.er


MauiJNP wrote:
>> >
> > What fact?  That babies sometimes wean themselves?  Since you can't
> > force a child to breastfeed, it should be pretty obvious.
> >
>
> you can force them if they have come to accept the fact that breastfeeding
> is their only way to get fed.
>

True. If it's a choice between starving and nursing, children will
nurse.  But given that MOST nursing toddlers/preschoolers are also
eating solid foods and drinking other fluids, that is not the case for
them. So, in those cases, it's obvious that a nursing preschooler is
not being 'forced'.

>
> >  my cousin's wife insisted that her child needed to be breastfed
> >> till she was 4 because she was such a lousy eater and wouldn't be healthy
> >> otherwise.  also she said that the child cried and wanted the breast.
> >> however, whenever the kid was in the same room as solid foods she would
> >> dive
> >> for them and her mom would take it all away and force the child to
> >> breastfed
> >> (which she would sometimes fight).
> >
> > Sounds like your cousin's wife had some weird problems.
>
> yes.
>
> > IF she wasn't
> > aware that children over 6-12 months also need solid foods she was
> > poorly educated about parenting -- something that has nothing to do
> > with breatsfeeding in and of itself.
>
> she believed that the breastmilk was enough though her daughter was
> consistantly very skinny she was getting enough nutriton from the breastmilk
> to not warrant C&Y to do something more.
>
So, again, the problem here was a lack of education about basic
nutrition and child care, NOT the breastfeeding in and of itself. If
she hadn't been nursing, no doubt C&Y would have been called in due to
some other problems. I've never seen a single written source anywhere,
even from the most extreme 'extended breastfeeding/attacment parenting
sources that says that children should be given ONLY breastmilk until
the age of 4, and if they try to eat other foods, it should be taken
away from them!

>
> >(Where was the pediatrician when
> > all this was happening?)
>
> Children and youth were involved for sometime and the doctors as well (which
> is when she stopped the breastfeeding and gave the kid some real food).

Though, for most families, it's not an either/or dichotomy. They
breastfeed AND child child gets 'real food.' (By which, I'm assuming
you mean solid food. Breastmilk is real.)

Naomi

.